Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announces State Government to build regional quarantine hub at Wellcamp

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has defended keeping Prime Minister Scott Morrison in the dark as constructions starts on a 1000-bed regional quarantine hub at Wellcamp, just outside Toowoomba.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has taken a swipe at the Prime Minister as she announced that the state government will build a major regional quarantine hub at Wellcamp, just outside Toowoomba.

Ms Palaszczuk said construction started on the 1000-bed quarantine hub today. It comes after an agreement was struck with John Wagner and the Wagner family, which owns the nearby Wellcamp airport.

Wagner Corporation will build the facility, with the accommodation modules to be manufactured in Queensland. The Queensland Government will operate the facility once it is up and running.

When asked if the Prime Minister knew about the facility, the Premier said “I’m quite sure he does now”.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison responded by saying the Queensland government had been “at liberty” to build a regional quarantine facility in Toowoomba “for months”.

“We have made it very clear that that facility did not meet the national guidelines, and that is why we are going forward together at Pinkenba,” he said.

“They have made that decision (on Wellcamp) and they could have done that months ago if that’s what they wished to do. Good for them. I wish them every success.”

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk will make a major Covid announcement from Wellcamp Airport this morning. Picture: Dan Peled

However, Ms Palaszczuk defended her decision not to tell the Commonwealth about the facility, despite needing their approval for the facility to be used.

“If you build it, they will come,” she said repeatedly.

Ms Palaszczuk would not reveal how much the facility would cost to build, except to say “it’s a lot cheaper than Pinkenba”, referring to the quarantine hub the federal government approved for Brisbane earlier this year.

She said the cost of the Wellcamp facility was commercial in confidence.

“We all know that our hotels were not built to deal with the delta stain of this virus, ” Ms Palaszczuk said.

“We need regional quarantine facilities, I have been advocating for this for a long, long time, it is a no-brainer.”

The hub will have a 1000-bed capacity and will likely be finished by the end of the year.

“Regional quarantine facilities are the second part of the answer, the first part of the answer is vaccines,” Ms Palaszczuk said.

“I’ve been calling for this since January, it could have been built now.

“If we want to open our country up and we want to open our states up, regional quarantine is part of the answer.”

John Wagner at the site of the Wellcamp quarantine facility. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen

The Premier said 400-450 jobs would be created through the construction of the new facility

Ms Palaszczuk said Toowoomba residents should not be concerned about outbreaks given Howard Springs had not experienced any issues with people escaping or the virus escaping the facility.

The quarantine hub announcement comes after arrivals from interstate hotspots were paused for two weeks due to quarantine hotels reaching capacity and resources becoming overwhelmed.

Ms Palaszczuk said any overflow of Covid patients would see people flown or taken via ambulance to Brisbane to prevent the Toowoomba Hospital being overloaded.

“This is going to be better than Howard Springs,” she said.

“Our cabinet has now committed to this partnership.”

“Hopefully over months and years we might get to a better position but at the moment the 14 days (of quarantine) will stay.”

Ms Palaszczuk said because the Wellcamp facility would be purpose built, less police and health staff would be required.

She said once the Pinkenba facility opened, hotels would not longer be needed for quarantine.

The Premier said they hoped they would be able to use the Wellcamp Airport for domestic flights for the facility.

“Six months ago did we think we’d have the Delta strain?”

“Hotel quarantine has been an initial defence against the virus coming in … and was one of the best decisions this country made.”

“If you build it they will come.”

Ms Palaszczuk announced no new locally acquired cases while there were two cases acquired overseas and detected in hotel quarantine.

Deputy Premier Steven Miles said more than 5000 people in the hotel quarantine system underlined the need for the quarantine facility.

“It is buffered from the community, a greenfield location but ready for construction and is adjacent to an airport,” he said.

“The talk about this facility has gone on for too long and the premier gave me a clear instruction to get it going and make it happen.”

Wellcamp Airport, which is located near the state government’s new regional quarantine hub. Picture: Glenn Hunt

Mr Miles said construction had already started the facility and the fact it was near an airport made it a perfect spot.

The commonwealth’s Government Pinkenba facility was still going ahead, he said.

“They (the Wagners) really do care about the Queensland community and see this as one way they can help the Queensland community,” Mr Miles said.

“Now we have achieved this very important milestone, we have an initial one year lease with options to extend that to one and two years.”

Mr Miles said rooms within the hub would be made up of single and family style rooms with balconies. He said no hallways would join the rooms.

John Wagner thanked the Queensland Government, which had already agreed to a one-year lease of the facility.

The Wagner family will be the landlords of the facility, which Mr Wagner said would be a huge economic boost to the Toowoomba region.

Mr Wagner said they were hoping to create the best quarantine facility in Australia and even the world.

Health Minister Yvette D’Ath said if the facility had been built sooner it may have prevented the government’s decision to pause interstate arrivals for two weeks.

“This is a great day and I am thrilled to be a part of the Palaszczuk team and working with the Wagners.”

Meanwhile, every person on Palm Island with any symptoms is being urged to get tested after Covid-19 was detected in waste sewage.

“Just so we can make sure we are protecting the community,” Ms D’Ath said.

More than 21000 vaccines were administered yesterday – a record day Ms D’Ath said.

The mass vaccination centre in South Brisbane is expecting to hit 50,000 vaccinations by the end of the day since it opened two weeks ago.